If you were on the internet Monday, you saw the pictures, the proof of Luka Dončić’s offseason dedication plainly obvious.
Sixteen hours a day, six days of week, the Los Angeles Lakers superstar didn’t eat, saving all his meals for an eight-hour window. Dončić put the basketball away, spending one month after the worst basketball season of his NBA life ended, and gave himself completely over to his training team, who got to work on strength and conditioning. He was intentional with the meals he consumed and the movement on the court and in the weight room that he took.
And, here in the final week of July, the initial results are visible in an incredibly public way.
Dončić — once the punchline to fat jokes, the guy who cracked beers and broke opponents’ ankles, the player who Dallas publicly bet against and privately disparaged — is on the cover of Men’s Health Magazine. The lines separating the muscles on his tanned arms are sharp. The cushion around his bearded jaw line has evaporated. His physique has been completely redone thanks in no small part to the work of Anže Maček and Javier Barrio, the drivers of his physical wellness team.
Our digital cover star, Luka Doncic, ready to take his game (and the Lakers) to new levels of dominance. And this summer shred has been years in the making.https://t.co/aB19DY7rrL pic.twitter.com/bjVsf1ampI
— Men’s Health Mag (@MensHealthMag) July 28, 2025
But if you just see a shrinking Dončić, you’re missing the bigger picture. This, the body, the publicity, the determined look in his eyes, the sweat reflecting the spotlights, it’s all part of a bigger plan. That plan, according to some around Dončić, was going to be fulfilled no matter what happened in his pro career. To everyone else, it’s so clearly a response to the humiliation and pain caused by the Dallas Mavericks’ decision to cast him away from the city where he’d planned on spending the entirety of his career.
Maybe, when you see the magazine pictures, you see skinny Luka. Maybe you see someone ready to unleash Kill Bill rage on the NBA with one of the game’s most noticeable revenge bodies. But, maybe, you should step back and see how everything that’s happened over the past few years has led Dončić to this place, a perfect storm allowing the Lakers to get him at a time when he’s never been more committed.
There’s little suspense around the team and the league surrounding Dončić’s intentions this weekend, when he can sign some version of an extension with the Lakers. The timing of all of this, though, is a signal to the NBA that this version of Dončić is ready to reclaim his spot as one of the best in the world — if not singularly.
The magazine spread (and three accompanying stories) dropped Monday as Dončić began a bit of a summer tour of the United States, beginning with multiple appearances in New York City before a one-day stop in Chicago and ending, most importantly, in Los Angeles. Not coincidentally, the stop in L.A. coincides perfectly with Aug. 2 — the date Dončić can sign a contract extension with the Lakers to formalize a partnership that the organization has eagerly been planning for since it acquired him for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a first-round pick on Feb. 1.
A link up with @TheJudge44 for Luka’s first time at Yankee Stadium 🤝@luka7doncic | @Lakers | @Yankees pic.twitter.com/x1q8LFgfcq
— NBA (@NBA) July 29, 2025
When Dončić arrived in Los Angeles, he hadn’t played in more than a month. He was noticeably out of shape, carrying a combination of extra weight and extra stress from a midseason trade that uprooted him and his young family from the one American city they’d ever lived.
Some sources in Dončić’s inner circle believed he was on the path toward this kind of physical transformation whether or not Dallas general manager Nico Harrison had bet against him. Dončić and his management team began working with Maček and Barrio in 2023. One year later, he helped carry the Mavericks to the NBA Finals and immediately followed that by playing for his national team in Slovenia’s failed bid to make the Paris Olympics.
The belief among Dončić’s team was, to some degree, that as he matured as an NBA professional, he’d adopt some better habits and completely buy into a stricter strength and conditioning program instead of the more competition-driven approach he’d been comfortable with. But improvement isn’t always linear, and Dončić suffered a number of physical setbacks in 2024 that certainly made it easier for the Mavericks to explore options other than handing him a blank check mega-extension.
Whether Dončić would’ve been the same quality of fitness model had he not been traded is sort of irrelevant. Same if you think the driving reason for this change is to stick it to the Mavericks for trading him (and justifying it by highlighting his weaknesses) or if they came at a moment where he had the most financial motivation And depending on how he structures this extension, it could be the precursor to the richest deal in NBA history in 2028 (when he could hit free agency after 10 years of league service).
Ultimately, all that matters is that this is the version Dončić is now — a perfect storm for the Lakers where they’re getting a player at a time when he has the most reasons to commit himself to his craft, to his new team and to the promise that he’s the league’s most talented player.
His approach this summer, from shedding weight to adding strength to recruiting new teammates, shows who Dončić is as a player and as a pillar of the Lakers now as much as any cover shoot could.
But the pictures that dropped Monday weren’t subtle. Whether it’s revenge, maturity or timing, it’s not difficult to see that the Lakers are about to get the best version of Dončić.
And that, they think, will be worth every penny.
(Photo of Dončić and Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge: New York Yankees / Getty Images)
